Make India Asbestos Free

Journal of Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI). Asbestos Free India campaign of BANI is inspired by trade union leader Purnendu Majumadar. It has been working for last 17 years. It works with peoples movements, doctors, researchers and activists besides trade unions, human rights, environmental, consumer and public health groups. BANI demands criminal liability for companies and medico-legal remedy for victims. For Details: krishnagreen@gmail.com

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Reopening world’s largest asbestos mine will create new victims

Note: While National Alliance for Asbestos Free India led BANI supports the demand of the Asian campaigners, it seeks boycott of both asbestos mining and products manufacturing companies. BANI has written letters to the heads Canadian, Quebec and Indian legislatures besides having appealed for world opinion against Quebec government to stop mining of killer fibers. The naked lust for profit alone is guiding the asbestos trade. Those who support it are guilty of barbarism and crime against humanity. International and national law must be geared to make the asbestos companies criminally liable for letting preventable deaths and diseases to happen.

Gopal Krishna, BANI

Plans to reopen world’s largest asbestos mine will create ‘new generation’ of victims

Quebec government considering $58 million loan to support the mine despite moral outrage over export of dangerous asbestos to India, Indonesia and the Phillipines

Campaigners are protesting against plans to re-open the world’s largest asbestos mine, the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec with the help of $58 million from the provincial government. The mine would export upwards of 6 million tonnes of chrysotile asbestos to less industrialised countries over the next 25 years.

While Canada has actively been removing all traces of asbestos from its buildings it has remained one of the world’s largest chrysotile asbestos exporters. Officials argue chrysotile can be handled safely and effectively. However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate more than 107,000 people die each year from asbestos-related lung cancer and mesothelioma, and that all forms of asbestos are strongly carcinogenic to humans.

Earlier this month a delegation of asbestos victims from Asia visited Quebec to hold workshops urging a ban on exports to India, Indonesia and the Phillipines, where asbestos is still heavily used to reinforce cement, buildings and roads. Protests have also been staged in Quebec and London with campaigners calling the continued exports an ‘abomination’ and a breach of human rights.

When inhaled, asbestos causes lung cancer and mesothelioma and it has been banned in many countries but is still heavily used in less industrialised countries where little protection is provided for workers. Medical experts told the Ecologist exporting chrysotile overseas was ‘unacceptable’ and an abdication of Canada’s social responsibility.

‘We know from clear scientific evidence that exposure to asbestos through mining, processing and use is harmful to health,’ said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). ‘We have a social responsibility to protect not only the health of Canadians, but that of citizens elsewhere who are being harmed by a Canadian export. Canada should not be abdicating this responsibility.’

Anti-asbestos campaigner Kathleen Ruff, author of Exporting Harm: How Canada Exports to the Developing World, told the Ecologist health officials around the world were ‘aghast’ at the Quebec government’s plans to revive the mine. She said the export of millions of tonnes would create a ‘new generation of victims amongst the most vulnerable people on the planet’.

Health Matters

Ban on Asbestos is a Must

A study in a peer-reviewed journal had earlier estimated that there could be more than 6,000 workers affected by asbestosis (an untreatable lung ailment) and another 600 suffering at the minimum from asbestosis-related lung cancer in India at present. Occupational cancer from asbestos, the disease caused by emissions at the work place, poses an increasingly serious health problem. But the subject has attracted relatively little attention from industry, labour, public health bodies or the medical profession. Asbestos is one of the single largest sources of occupational cancer. Indian polticians are acting as if they are bonded workers of asbestos industry.

World Trade Center, New York collapsed Thousands of tons of asbestos became airborne.

Back in 1981, there was research coming out that Asbestos was cancer causing and this ad was in rebuttal to that research touting the benefits of using Asbestos. The text over the Twin Towers states, "When the Fire Alarm Went Off, It Took Two Hours to Evacuate New York's World Trade Center." I do not need to remind anyone of the images of September 11th and this ad. The copy below the ad goes on to mention all of the places that Asbestos was used in the World Trade Center. I can not not think of all of the innocent victims in the area that were exposed to all of the dust, smoke and inherent asbestos that was in the air after the buildings collapsed. The cloud of smoke went across the entire city and potentially exposed hundreds of thousands of individuals to asbestos. Hopefully there can be a cure or treatment for Mesothelioma before all of these potential victims are diagnosed.

Ban Use of Asbestos Products

Apex Court allocates meagre compensation for asbetsos victims

In 1995, the Supreme Court of India fixed Rs 1 lakh compensation amount and identified National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) as the final authority to certify asbestosis cases. Compensations are given through the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Two workers in Ahmedabad Electricity Company diagnosed as having asbestosis by NIOH have been compensated by Gujarat High Court. Twenty-five workers in asbestos jointing and packing industry at Mumbai were compensated by the Special medical board of ESIC. The court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen’s Compensation Act and give health coverage to every worker.

Asbestos Victims

Every day estimated 30 deaths in India is under way due to the ongoing trade and use of white asbestos. 'Asbestos' in Greek means 'indestructible'. Greeks called asbestos the 'magic mineral'. Asbestos is a generic term, referring usually to six kinds of naturally occuring mineral fibres. Of these six, three are used more commonly. Chrysotile is the most common, accounts for almost 90 per cent of the asbestos used in the industry, but it is not unusual to encounter Amosite or Crocidolite as well. Though Crocidolite asbestos is banned in India, it can still be found in old insulation material, old ships that come from other countries for wrecking in India. All types of asbestos tend to break into very tiny fibre, almost microscopic. In fact, some of them may be up to 700 times smaller than human hair. Because of their small size, once released into the air, they may stay suspended in the air for hours or even days. Asbestos fibres are virtually indestructible. They are resistant to chemicals and heat, and are very stable in the environment. They do not evaporate into air or dissolve in water, and they do not break down over time. Because of its high durability and with tensile strength asbestos has been widely used inconstruction and insulation materials - it has been used in over 3,000 different products. Where do we use it? In India, asbestos is used in manufacture of pressure and non pressure pipes used for water supply, sewage, irrigation and drainage system in urban and rural areas, asbestos textiles, laminated products, tape, gland packing, packing ropes, brake lining and jointing used in core sector industries such as automobile, heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants, fertilizers, thermal power plants, transportation, defence.

Vladimir Putin government set up a panel of experts to give an opinion on a possible Russian asbestos ban. The panel’s report gave an impassioned defence of asbestos use. Dr Izmerov gave a presentation on "Chrysotile. Russian Experience in Occupational Health" at the International Conference on Chrysotile in Montreal during May 23 - 24, 2006. Russia exported 152, 820 MT of chrysotile asbestos to India in 2006.